The Burning Land, by Victoria Strauss

I finally finished reading The Burning Land. It took me almost a week, mainly because I've been playing a lot of MTGO in my spare time. Despite how long it took me to read it, I think The Burning Land is a good book.

The thing I liked most with this books was the characters. The story is told from the viewpoints of Gyalo and Axane. They're both very well-rounded sorts of characters. I especially like Gyalo and his struggles with his faith.

I also liked the fairly original sort of magic in this book. There are Shapers and Dreamers. Shapers can make or unmake non-living things with magic. Dreamers can dream of far flung events and attempt to change the world with their dreaming (I wasn't all that clear on exactly what they did). It's far more original that the usual waving-your-arms-and-mumbling-in-a-foreign-language type of magic that's most common.

The only thing I really didn't like was the ending. There's no real resolution to the larger issues. Sure, Gyalo and Axane finally get together, but there are a lot of plot threads left hanging. That's no too much of a handicap though, since I assume that many of the plot threads will be tied up in the sequel, The Awakened City. I give The Burning Land four yo-yos.